“And they beckoned unto their partners...that they should come and help them.”~ Lk. 5:7
Our present-day definition of the word beckon is: make a gesture with the hand, arm, or head to encourage someone to come nearer or to follow. And so, as always, the Bible’s meaning is a step ahead of the dictionaries.
Jesus was summoned, so to speak on numerous occasions in His earthly life to come and help or follow someone. And not once, to my knowledge, did He refuse. Wonder of wonders, the Lord of Glory at someone else's beck and call.
I think the most humbling experience I ever had was at a camp meeting. I gestured with a mute sign to my dear friend Marv Clanton, who is now with the Lord, to come to the pulpit where I was standing. I had just spoken. Immediately he obeyed subserviently. After I related to him what I wanted to say he spoke something that devastated my spiritual life.
What he said, like himself, was kind and gentle. Also very wise in telling me something about myself. The statement from my Tennessee country preacher friend was as follows, “Didja ever notice, whenever you beckon me I always come?” What a Christlike man of God he was!
I say ashamedly, I still, though unconscious of it, am guilty of this plague of the heart from time to time. May God Help me! And you my friend, if there is a like spirit.
An Old Disciple